Marcello Lippi celebrated his 65th birthday in China and cast his eye over the Italian football scene. “The clubs aren’t doing as well as the Nazionale.”

The 2006 World Cup winner is now Coach of club side Guangzhou Evergrande and to mark his birthday on Friday spoke to RaiSport.

“I am happy in China. As for the future, we’ll see,” said Lippi.

“It’s a bad sign for Italian football that none of the teams got past the quarter-finals this season. It reflects the economic situation too, as the top European clubs have very different options on the transfer market.

“The Italy squad is in great shape, but that is a different matter altogether. They are close to qualifying for the World Cup and have a good future ahead of them, but the clubs aren’t doing as well as the Nazionale.”